Assassin's Creed for the PS3

Updated on March 30, 2008

The title of this Ubisoft game seems to suggest that Assassins do have some standards. In other words, they don’t just go around killing people. I guess even assassins need to have some moral center. The justification of their murders is that assassins only kill a few people if it can save many. I suppose that is what this game is all about. Of course, video games generally tend to be absent of themes, but this game is deeper than just missions and bosses.

Assassin’s Creed started out in a way that I never expected. I had heard that this game takes place during the Third Crusade, so I was looking forward to a medieval swordplay setting the moment the game began. Yet don’t let the box fool you, the game does not start out in a fantasy setting.

Assassin’s Creed starts out in a futuristic setting. You play a man who was (or is) an assassin, and a doctor and his obligatory attractive assistant but you on some virtual reality device in order to access information learned in a past life.

As soon as you enter into this virtual world, it resembles the “construct program” in the movie The Matrix. In other words, this is a realm that just goes on everywhere in all directions, which exists only to teach you things about the world you must survive in. You soon learn a lot of moves, which all focus on being a serious assassin, all of them are somewhat confusing being that they are performed with the button-munching PS3 controls.

The complexity of the moves make for one interesting game, and it isn’t long before you are put in the field to use these moves. You can use the controls to “mark” someone as a target, and then kill him. What makes this very interesting is how a player can blend into a crowd with the “X” button. The blend button keeps you from being seen by the enemies, and perhaps this is the only game I know that allows such a camouflage.

Another unique aspect of this game is the way a player can climb things. You can scale walls, provided there are enough handhelds to climb. You can also jump from building to building like a cat burglar. Assassin’s Creed really breaks out of the box when it comes to the player interacting with a three-dimensional setting.

Assassin’s Creed has one of the most interesting methods of expanding your territory. Several times you have to climb to the top of towers and scan your surroundings. Then you do this great “leap of faith” where you dive headlong into a hay bale. That looks just awesome.

The mission of this game is that your character needs to discover a conspiracy in Jerusalem, and that is done through covert action, pickpocketing, interrogation, small kills, and big kills. It is enough to make this game an intriguing hit that will no doubt inspire a lot of sequels.